Special Tutoring

The Scarlett Letter

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[German]

liebing : darling

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A.

I looked down on the garish red letter on the right corner of my test paper.

Damn. Even though I found the paper inexplicably easy because Ethan had drilled the concepts into my brains last Saturday afternoon, I still hadn't expected to do so well. To me, a nice B+ would suffice and probably attract less attention and suspicion from my parents. For a while I worried that they would either go into cardiac arrest at the shock that I had suddenly come into the brainpower that our family was known for (Dad was a tenured Law professor at the university and Mom ran her own business. As for my older sister Qin, there was no need to explain further), or worse, actually develop higher expectations on my academic achievements. That was a massive no-no to me. I had no wish to kiss my active social life goodbye and bury myself in books like Qin did.

Yet I felt deflated when they just briefly glanced at the paper and nodded before turning back to their breakfasts the next day. They must have become jaded after looking at the Qin's grades, I thought sourly as I pushed my cereal around with my spoon. Then I remembered Ethan, instanteously brightening at the thought of telling him my result later.

I wondered at his response. Oh shoot! I forgot to do his homework. Inwardly groaning, I made my way back to my room. Closing the door behind me, I reached into the niche behind the window seat where I hid all my secret stash. I pulled out the homework. Argh, there were like ten questions. I looked at my Hello Kitty clock, I didn't think I would be able to go shopping with Amy before popping over to Ethan's later this afternoon. Quickly whatsapping her a quick raincheck, I settled down to the "joys" of Physics, as my iPhone began to vibrate from Amy's annoyed reply.

After struggling like what felt like forever, I looked up at the clock again. Ohmigod, it was two! I even missed Mom and Qin's yelled goodbyes, while concentrating on this homework from hell. Seriously where did Ethan get these questions from? I hastily stacked my papers together, ran a quick hand through my hair while checking my reflection in the mirror before running out of the house.

As I rang his doorbell, I suddenly recalled I had forgotten to wear any makeup. And worse, I was completely braless under my striped pinafore dress. Hopefully Ethan would not notice. Or should I be hopeful that he would?

I was still thinking when the door suddenly opened. As usual he was wearing his usual university letter tee and boxer shorts. He appraised me from head to foot before moving aside to let me in.

"Glad to meet with your approval, sir." I wandered into the apartment. What irony considering that he didn't even bother to dress to impress.

Men.

I pushed aside some of the mess that was on his table before I put my things down. His long body sank onto the nearby bed, his quiet gaze on me.

I waved my paper in his face. "Look, I got A."

He raised a brow, and gave me an inscrutable expression. "So?"

"Well, aren't you going to say well done?"

"Not really. I didn't expect you to do worse than that. Pass me the homework I assigned you."

Sullenly I turned back to reach for the homework, when I was suddenly seized with this wicked idea. I should tease him back for what he did to me last Saturday! I lifted the paper languidly and oops, it fell from my fingertips and floated to the floor. I bent forward to pick the paper so that he could catch the barest of glimpses of my white polka dotted panties, before passing it to him.